Speech #520113641

E. 0. Shakespeare. port physician of the city of Philadelphia. who has given full and diligent study to this subject. He says the cholera will come inUnless constant care be taken to guard against the probability that the germs of the disease may be transported in the clothing and personal effects of those classes of transatlantic travelers who usually come to this country in the steerage. And he goes on to prove by the prior history of cholera that such is the fact. He speaks of the cholera coming on former occasions. and says: Again in 1873 epidemic outbreaks of cholera occurred in Ohio. Minnesota. and Dakota. which were caused by cholera poison packed up in the household effects of emigrants from Holland. Sweden. and Russia. respectively. These immigrants sailed from healthy ports in healthy vessels. and were subjected to the usual sanitary requirements of the period (that is. mere boarding by the quarantine officer and hurried inspection). They passed through New York and the intermediate territory w~lthout injury to the public health. but when their infected goods were unpacked in the interior of the continent. they liberated the poison which gave rise to the local outbreaks. In the discussion of this question I can not too severely emphasize the wellknown fact that cholera has never been brought to the Atlantic coast of North America except by vessels transporting this class of filthy people from Europe. 1 have repeatedly pointed out that it is practically only people of this class and condition who. during time of prevalence of cholera in any portion of Europe whence they are likely toproceed or through which they may migrate. expose this country to the dafiger of cholera. To persistently and relentlessly. winter and summer. adhere to the policy of rigid exclusion from all our ports of these dangerous classes until cholera shall have entirely vanished from Europe. is to strike at the root of the difficulty. e in my opinion. is the only way to certainly succeed in protecting the country during the whole time it is threatened with the infection of this disease. Dr. Shakespeare further says in an article in the Medical News of September 10. 1892: To my mind. in the case of the United States. so far distant from the source of cholera. and so remote from European shores. we need only to fear. during the prevalence of a widespread epidemic of cholera in the northern portion of Europe. the introduction of the disease here through the numerous hordes of emigrants constantly arriving from Europe. It is a fact beyond dispute that cholera preys upon and breeds among those living in squalor and filth. and closely follows their movement. It is exceptional. even in Bengal. the home of cholera. that the Englishmen there are attacked by the disease.